Prashant Rasaily loses in the finals of Gateway

GANGTOK, May 11: Sikkim’s Prashant Rasaily lost the ticket to Hollywood by a whisker.

The extremely talented young filmmaker was beaten in the finals of Gateway, a reality show aired on the Sony Pix television channel, by Bejoy Nambiar from Mumbai.

The final episode, which was aired today, had its tense moments when films of both the finalists were scrutinised by the jury. While most of the jury members liked Prashant’s filmmaking techniques, especially his camera work and editing, Bejoy ultimately won the title on the basis of his strong script.

‘Gateway,’ conceptualised by Hollywood producer Ashok Amritraj, featured 18 contestants from all across India who competed intensively over several weeks to get a chance to direct a Hollywood film produced by Amritraj’s company, Hyde Park Entertainment.

The winner will also receive an intensive 8-week internship with Ashok Amritraj and Hyde Park Entertainment in Los Angeles. The filmmaker will use the internship to learn the intricacies of both the art and business of filmmaking in Hollywood before embarking on directing the Hyde Park Entertainment-produced film.

Established Directors Anurag Basu of ‘Gangster’ and ‘Life in a Metro’ fame, and Rajat Kapoor who is best remembered for ‘Mixed Doubles’ and ‘Bheja Fry’ formed the permanent jury of the show. While the title and the chance to direct a Hollywood flick may have gone to Bejoy, Prashant was not disappointed. Director Anurag Basu, who all along supported and perhaps recognised the calibre of Prashant as a filmmaker, declared during the finals that he would give Prashant a script and asked him to direct the film.

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